MUSKEGON -- A community group gathered by Muskegon's Save Our Shoreline is ready to take aggressive action to change the course of the redevelopment plans for the former Sappi paper mill property on Muskegon Lake.

Chronicle file photoThe aerial view of the 120-acre paper mill property shows how close it is to Lakeside Neighborhood homes, which causes public concern on how the property will be redeveloped.

About 75 concerned citizens strategized for more than two hours Wednesday night at Bunker School in the Lakeside Neighborhood on how they can best influence the future of the 120-acre site with nearly a mile of Muskegon Lake shoreline.

To a person, the group wants a complete environmental investigation of the site and a full report to the community. Beyond the current environmental condition of the property, the citizens are concerned about the proposed industrial redevelopment of the site.

The group seemed to support a citizen petition to request the city of Muskegon rezone the property from its current heavy industrial zoning to a "waterfront marine" zoning that is prevalent along that portion of Muskegon Lake.

The other suggestion was for the city of Muskegon to condemn the property under a "public taking" and acquire the property through court action.

Either strategy could be seen as hostile to new owner Melching Inc.'s announced intentions of redeveloping the site for industrial use. Melching purchased key lakefront property from Sappi Fine Paper for $2.3 million last year.

The South African paper company ended 109 years of paper making on the site in 2009. The deed Melching received for the site restricts redevelopment to industrial use and limits what the Nunica-based demolition company can do environmentally with the property.

Save Our Shoreline is an environmental action group that was formed in the mid-1970s to successfully oppose the development of a North Star Steel plant on Muskegon Lake just east of the paper mill. It has continued to monitor Muskegon Lake issues and become involved when needed, President Cynthia Price told group.

Price said the conversation on the future of the Sappi site raises two issues: the environmental condition of the property and its eventual cleanup; and the future use of the land.

"There is a lot of ambiguity and misinformation on this property that leaves us unsettled," said Lakeside resident Dylan Hock. "I don't find the owner's response to us acceptable. Melching needs to do the right thing and clean the land."

Chronicle file photoOwner Doug Melching allowed community leaders and interested parties to tour the Sappi paper mill site last year after he purchased the property from the South African paper company.

Environmental planner Kathy Evans told the group that the community must demand action if the environmental issues are going to be addressed. She said with past direct discharge of paper mill waste into Muskegon Lake before the Muskegon County Wastewater Management System there is no doubt the site is polluted.

"We have to say here is what we want and start working with the government agencies, Melching and Sappi," Evans said. "Let's start looking at the lake bottom and see what is there. We do not want anything leaching into the lake."

The "open microphone" approach of the SOS meeting generated plenty of ideas on how the community should proceed. There were calls for SOS to bring in state and national environmental groups for assistance and seeking volunteer legal services to investigate the possibility of overturning the deed restrictions.

Others want the city of Muskegon to take action. A petition drive for a zone change on the property can be expected. Bluffton resident Larry Page read the city's 1999 master plan that called for the property to be redeveloped as other than industrial if the paper mill ever closed.

Bluffton resident Peter Sartorius challenged the group and the city to explore using the city's power of "eminent domain" to acquire the property. Prior to the Melching purchase, both the city of Muskegon and certain Muskegon County commissioners explored the public acquisition of the site but declined.

"This is the time to be proactive," Sartorius said."The city needs to have the foresight to move to take the property. The property never will be cheaper as it is now as a vacant, contaminated site.

"If you wait for 12 properties to be created and sold to 12 new owners ... it will never happen,' he said of Melching plans to subdivide the site.

Page countered that the best plan of attack would be to force a zone change.

"I don't think the city should take the property ... I don't think we can afford it," Page said.

Sartorius, a former urban planner and chairman of the Muskegon Planning Commission, warned that rezoning the site without the owner's support would be difficult.

"You will have a wild lawsuit that could go on for years if the owner did agree," he predicted.

No one rallied the SOS troops like Chris Willis: "I want a clean, sustainable development ... I want it to look like the future, not the past," she said to huge applause.

Through the rambling public discussion of the Sappi property issues, many of the citizens cast negative light on company owner Doug Melching. Evans said her interaction with the new property owner that has begun extensive demolition on the site has been positive.

"Doug Melching has been pretty easy to work with to this point" Evans told the group. "He seems like he'd support the cleanup of that site if it becomes in his best interest. I don't think he's going to be a problem."

Evans suggested a strategy of meeting with Melching officials and getting their support for various plans outlined by those at the SOS meeting.